Performance of Bolted Wood-to-Concrete Connections and Bolted Connections in Plywood Shear Walls.

In the aftermath of recent earthquakes in populated areas, observations of wood- frame residential and commercial construction have revealed damage to plywood shear walls in the form of splitting of the sill plate along the line of anchor bolts in the foundation and of the end post along the bolts in the hold-down connection. This paper presents an experimental investigation of the sill plate connection, using a variety of bolt sizes and member thicknesses. The investigation also includes full-scale studies of plywood shear wall assemblies. Standard connections are examined as well as connections strengthened with reinforcing clamps. These clamps are shown to increase strength and energy absorption in wood-to-concrete and wood-to-wood connections where the failure mode is splitting of the wood member. The reinforcing clamps are shown to increase the stiffness and energy dissipation of a shear wall specimen.